Cities for rent

Resource context

“Cities for Rent: Investigating Corporate Landlords Across Europe” is a cross‑border investigation published by Cities4Rent. It was initiated by the Arena for Journalism in Europe and produced by a team of over 25 investigative and data journalists and visualisation experts from 16 European countries. Authors and co‑initiators include Brigitte Alfter and Jose Miguel Calatayud, alongside many contributors across Europe.

Why rental housing became a prime investment target

The project describes how high demand for rental flats in major European cities has made housing an increasingly attractive asset class, even as many residents struggle to find affordable, decent homes. It reports that investment into residential real estate in Europe rose by more than 700% between 2009 and 2020, increasing from €7.9 billion to €66.9 billion (Real Capital Analytics). The investigation frames this growth as occurring alongside widespread reports of abusive practices by “corporate landlords” (companies buying and renting homes for profit) and deepening concerns about housing affordability.

What the investigation set out to uncover

A central aim is to trace financial flows behind large-scale acquisitions: where investment money comes from, which companies and investors are buying housing, and how these dynamics affect people’s homes and daily lives. The team sought to find, standardise, and visualise relevant data, while documenting impacts on cities and tenants. The work highlights that, since the financial crisis, international investment funds and housing corporations have been buying homes across European cities, creating multiple “critical issues” linked to affordability, security of tenure, and tenant treatment.

City evidence and documented tenant impacts

The investigation presents examples across Europe. In Madrid (2013), authorities sold more than 4,800 homes originally intended as affordable housing to companies controlled by American investment funds; after the sale, corporate landlord Blackstone reportedly raised rents sharply, in some cases doubling them over three years, with many tenants ultimately evicted. In Dublin (2019), tenants reported an incident in which a representative of a corporate landlord forced entry into a flat and caused extensive damage, amid claims the company had been pressuring residents to leave after purchasing the building. In Lisbon (2017), a building bought for €2.7 million was soon listed for €7 million as “unoccupied”, while 12 families were reportedly living there.

Patterns of abusive practices and human-rights concerns

Across Paris, London, Copenhagen, and Berlin, tenants in properties owned by Swedish company Akelius are described as having complained for years about abusive practices. The project notes that in 2020 the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing stated that Akelius was abusing tenants’ human rights. More broadly, it reports consistent accounts of negligence and abusive tactics across many investigated cities, naming recurring companies in complaints (including Blackstone, Akelius, and Heimstaden) and describing similar tenant experiences across multiple national contexts.

Data gaps, governance challenges, and pandemic links

A recurring finding is limited transparency and patchy, non-comparable data. The investigation argues that lack of accessible, standardised information makes it difficult for researchers and even local governments to understand ownership patterns and investment flows in rental markets. It highlights examples where the absence of registries or usable datasets hinders analysis (including the difficulty of quantifying acquisitions in Lisbon and challenges linked to property registry accessibility in Athens). It also links the Covid‑19 period to renewed attention on housing conditions, citing studies in the UK and France showing correlations between overcrowding, low social-housing availability, homelessness in temporary accommodation, and higher Covid‑19 mortality.

What the project shares to support further work

Cities4Rent positions the investigation as a starting point for ongoing pan‑European, collaborative research on corporate landlords and affordability. The site shares methodology, limitations, approaches to data visualisation, and a data catalogue describing the datasets gathered or generated during the project, with the stated goal of enabling deeper cross‑border inquiry and better informed public debate on Europe’s housing crisis.